The Prime Minister of India has announced that it definitely is constructing the Tipaimukh dam. This will damage the ecosystem of the surrounding area including Bangladesh. We definitely do not want that. We need to get together and make a very loud noise to shake the world and stop India. If a country dies, who lives? If a country lives, who dies?

India is doing it with total disregard to the calls of the people of Barak valley (people from both upstream and downstream) and without joint detailed and independent Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), which is required under the Environment Protection Act 1986.

There has been no meaningful public consultation. Neither is there Environment Management Plan (EMP) for formulating, implementing and monitoring environmental protection measures (during and after the project) nor there any Rehabilitation and Resettlement Plan!

The UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination has urged the government of India not to construct the Tipaimukh Dam in its concluding observation of the Seventieth session from February 19 to March 9, 2007 and in its special communications made on August 15, 2008; March 13, 2009 and September 23, 2009. The Forum further urged authorities concerned to follow free, fair and prior informed consent of the people under the ILO Convention 107.

The 163m high dam of 1500 MW will submerge more than 286 sq. km of prime farmland upstream and dry up a huge area of wet land. One third of Bangladesh and lives of 40 million Bangladeshis will be affected.

India is certainly violating international laws and conventions. We just want them to obey these laws and conventions. The Tipaimukh dam project is violating United Nations:

1. Helsinki Rules (1966) Every country with Common River must consider the usage of water in a way that does not affect any countries’ economical and social environment. Consideration must be given to the total harm it might bring on the affected countries.

2. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (the UN Convention), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 21 May 1997. Aims at ensuring the utilization, development, conservation, management and protection of international watercourses, and promoting optimal and sustainable utilization thereof for present and future generations.

3. UNEP Convention on Biological Diversities, 1992 Every Country is resolute to preserve the environmental and biological atmosphere of the world.

4. Ramsar Convention on Wet Lands 1971, arranged by the UNESCO Every Country in the world is committed to safeguard water reservoir for the preservation of Aquatic ecosystem and natural environment.

5. World Commission on Dams (WCD) 1998, Established by World Bank and IUCN If any country wants to build any big Dam it must consult with the inhabitant of that river basin so that the project is acceptable to them (It has to be stressed that this acceptance must be by the people of that basin not by the government).

N.B: If any Dam is higher than 15 metres and can contain more than 3 million cubic metres of water, the World Commission on Dams considers it a big Dam. It has to be noted especially here that the Tipaimukh Dam will be 11 times higher and will contain 500 times more water than the concept of big dam above.

As we depend on agriculture and some of your villagers say, we cannot eat electricity, we must not be lured by the possibility of getting electricity from India. This is a question of right to basic livelihood.

How long must we wait, while our fundamental and basic rights are denied? Let us unite to demand: Cancel the Tipaimukh Dam project; let the river run free and be with us. Let us do the right thing for ourselves, for our future generations and for our natural heritage.

United Nations must oversee the whole matter and initiate the establishment of a regional water commission with affected country and ensure rightful water supply for Bangladesh.

*By Farakkah, Tista and other Barrages India is controlling our water. As a consequence, we are losing 100 billion taka every year from our economy as northern part of Bangladesh is turning into a desert. We rightfully want to demand compensation for those losses from India.

*Until and unless our water interest is guaranteed, Bangladesh with the assistance of other friendly countries must create pressure on India from the international community to ensure its rightful water shares in common rivers.

*To strengthen the position of the Government of Bangladesh and to inform the world about severe consequences of India’s dam projects on trans-boundary rivers, we need to reinforce our efforts for the success of the water protest. We all Bangladeshis, irrespective of where we live in the world, political views and religion, must participate in the protest.

Very dangerously the Tipaimukh dam is situated in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. In 1890 there was a 8.7 rector scale earthquake and it’s usually repeat every 100 – 200 years. If the dam vanishes, 10 million lives will perish.

Some experts are saying that the Tipaimukh dam is more dangerous than an atom bomb.

India has failed to share with Bangladesh any data on the dam project and signed a joint investment agreement with a commercial company and the state government on the construction of Tipaimukh Dam and a hydroelectric project without informing Bangladesh. It broke its earlier promise that it would not take any steps regarding the dam that could harm Bangladesh.

Therefore, we can no longer trust India and are making our petition to the highest authority of the world, The UNITED NATIONS, to enforce international laws and conventions.

On behalf of the people of Bangladesh, we appeal to you to convince India to stop constructing dams on upstream rivers that flow through Bangladesh.

In a clear violation of various UN conventions and the 1996 Ganges Water Treaty between Bangladesh and India, the Indian government recently announced its decision to go ahead with the project of constructing the Tipaimukh dam (hydro-electricity plant) on a river which feeds two major river systems in Bangladesh.

India’s unilateral action to dam and withdraw water ignores international conventions, such as the Ramsar Convention on Wet Lands (1971), the Helsinki Rules (1966), the UNEP Convention on Biological Diversities (1992), the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate change, the 1994 Convention on Desertification and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. In addition, India’s unilateral decision violates the spirit of the Millennium Declaration by 191 Member States of the United Nations, which pledges: “To stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at the regional, national and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies” (Chapter IV, para 23).

The construction of this dam will have profound negative environmental, ecological, economic and social impacts on the Bangladeshi people. Yet, neither the construction nor management plan for the Tipaimukh dam has been shared with Bangladesh. There has been no exchange of information or data regarding the impact of the dam on the ecology, environment, fishery, wildlife and, most importantly, on the lives and livelihood of the people living upstream and downstream of the dam.

Excellency, the proposed Tipaimukh dam is to be located 500 metres downstream from the confluence of the Barak and Tuivai rivers, which lies in the south-western corner of India’s Manipur state. When completed it will be a huge earth dam (rock-fill with central impervious core) rising to about 180m above sea level and will have a maximum reservoir level of 178m. It will have an installation capacity of 1,500MW with only a firm generation of 412MW (less than 30 per cent of installed capacity).

The proposed dam is located in one of the most seismically volatile regions in the world. An analysis of earthquake activity within a 200km radius of the proposed Tipaimukh dam site reveals that hundreds of earthquakes have occurred in the last 100-200 years. Within the 100km radius of Tipaimukh alone, 2 major earthquakes of magnitude +7 have taken place in the last 150 years -- the last major earthquake was in 1957 which was located about 75km ENE of the dam site. The seismic volatility of the area therefore raises the very real possibility of a dam failure.

Excellency, we not only dread the catastrophic consequences of dam failure due to earthquakes. We also fear that this project will accelerate desertification in Bangladesh. Bangladesh obtains 7 to 8 percent of its total water from the Barak in India’s north-eastern states. The dam will choke the flow of water in the Surma and the Kushiara Rivers, and will ultimately dry up Meghna, the third biggest river of the country.

The Tipaimukh dam will also transform and devastate the ecosystem of the Sylhet region in Bangladesh and India’s Monipur state. It will affect the production of both rice – the staple food - and fish – the major source of protein. It will also seriously affect the flora, fauna and biodiversity of the region. Millions of people are dependent on hundreds of water bodies, fed by the Barak, in the Sylhet region for fishing and agricultural activities. This dam by destroying the livelihood of people, especially the poor, will have a serious long term impact on poverty and security in the region.

Excellency, as the World Commission on Dams observed in its report, the hazards of dam construction outstrip their benefits. The World Commission which analysed the environmental, economic and social impact of the world's 45,000 large dams, concluded that the overall costs of dams, to both man and nature, are mostly negative, and “an unacceptable and unnecessary price has been paid to secure … benefits”. Dams are notorious for creating great environmental change and force massive human resettlement of people who live where the lake is created. The World Bank estimated in 1994 that 300 large dams forced some four million people to leave their homes.

Hydroelectric dams, once regarded as clean renewable energy source, have turned out to be significant generators of greenhouse gases given off by decomposing vegetation in tropical reservoirs. Even the prevention of flood is a mixed blessing. Due to decrease of river flows downstream, sea-water flows up and penetrates the ground. Most crops cannot survive increased salinity.

Excellency, India has been constructing dams on 53 common rivers that flow through Bangladesh. We have seen the adverse environmental impacts of India’s Farakka dam/barrage project at the upstream of the mighty Ganges which flows into Bangladesh as Padma, and dams/barrages on the Tista River. The Farakka and Tista dams have transformed the northern districts of Bangladesh almost to a desert and contributed to the arsenic contamination of ground water.

Excellency, we appeal to you, in the name of humanity, for the sake of the environment and ultimately for regional and global security, to stop India from this act of vandalism. We also urge you to demand that India agrees to shared-management of all common rivers in the spirit of the Millennium Declaration. Yours sincerely,